Sorry its been taking me so long to write. I keep thinking Ill wait till after something else happens so i can include that in the report too but things that i want to include just keep happening.

First of all, I just got back from a trip to Lapland with all the other exchangers in finland (140 or 150). Crazy crazy time, even crazyer bus ride there with nowhere to sit at all but thats another story. We drove north, about 7 hours north of Oulu where i live, but the kids from helsinki had about a day and a half bus ride. we went to Muonio, which is a tiny town on the swedish border. Reindeer sledding, dog sledding, building snow sculptures, toboganing, snowshoing, everything to do with snow basiclly. Also having dinner outside around a fire while its snowing and listening to a lappish guy sing and going to a Sami village to see how it was back in the olden days. Samis are a pretty neat tribe, but theyre slowly becoming 'Finn-ized' so hopefully thier culture wont die out.

This was quite possibly the last time we would see the oldies such as austrailians from the southern hemisphere, ect. so we were also quite sad to never see those who we had just spent the trip with again.Next, i came back and moved host families right after. I kind of feel bad because when i got back i didnt even go to bed, despite not sleeping for the lapland trip. i just did my laundry, put all my stuff in my suitcases and moved the next day at 12, without saying goodbye to my last family cause they were in Kuusamo. I kind of feel bad aobut it like i said, but i thought my last hostdad would be at the rotary meeting i went to today, but he wasnt, so ill call them and say Hyvää Joulua or something soon.

My new host parents are so sweet. they have two children who are now grown, but should be visiting over the holidays. They dont really speak english well, which is a plus because that is rare to find in Finland and Im finally starting to learn this language, but they also said that the reason they have me is to learn english better, so i do have to speak it sometimes. Theyre both so nice though, sometimes i feel babied by my new hostmom but i know she does these things out of the goodness of her heart, such as walk to my bus stop at about 11 at night when i first was there when she is usually in bed just to make sure i knew my way home. Also she always tries to cook for me, and is excited about making christmas cookies with me, which we were supposed to be doing yesterday but the dough turned out bad, so round two today. She is convinced i dont get enough protien cause im a vegetarian though, even though i eat beans pretty much every day, she dosent beleve me that they are a good source of protein. And i have started to take vitaman d pills too because of her, because the sun is out for about 4 or 5 hours a day here, and even then its overcast, so she was worried about me. Shes trying to teach me to knit socks as well, because she is good at that sort of thing, but i got to the ankle part and she took them apart and told me to start over cause she thinks it would be too small or something. more practice i guess?

My host dad is a musican who used to play tenor sax and has now switched to piano. he is also and insomniac who plays music when he cant sleep....

A few days ago I went to a pikkujoulu party organized by rotex, which means little christmas party, which are quite popular in finland. We saw some more austrailians for possibly the last time and made gingerbread cookies. today I went to a rotary meeting which turned into a rotary pikkujoulu party with guitar playing and christmas song singing. i was glad i went, because it was a unboring rotary meeting.

Another interesting event is the nearly eternal darkness here at this time of year. This thursday will be the darkest day of the year. People always have reflectors on their jackets so they dont get run over by cars and so when you try to catch a bus they actully stop for you and dont drive straight past. Although most finns are under the impression that they are complete badasses and therefore have to have their reflectors shaped like middle fingers or pentegrams or something. the darkness is really a neat time of year though, and talking to people now i have realized that when you meet a finn you either meet the summer version or the winter one. when the darkness comes their personalities also change, and they become depressed, silent creatures of the night (more so than before).

On a sad note about the weather, it has been unseasonably warm and only about a centimeter or two of snow are on the ground, there was more snow back in october than now. I feel like i am missing out on a real finnish winter, but im sure it will come when i least want it to.

I'll fill you in on Chrstimas tradition in finland after christmas, and until then, thanks everyone for everything and good luck to you all.